Government micro blogs accounts up to 50,000

The first report on the operation of micro blogs run by ministry-level departments was released by Sina.com, a leading Chinese website.

The government now has 50,000 micro blog accounts, according to the report released on Aug 23.

Seventeen ministries and ministerial level organizations have accounts with Sina Weibo, China’s largest micro blog platform, operating 44 official micro blogs. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has 11 micro blogs, the Ministry of Public Security seven and the Ministry of Health five.

The Foreign Ministry’s Waijiao Xiaolingtong — Foreign Affairs Information — micro blog has attracted more than 2.8 million followers since it was registered in April last year. As of Monday, it had made more than 5,000 posts.

Seeing itself as ‘the bridge between public and foreign affairs’, Waijiao Xiaolingtong aims for a relaxed, lively tone.

“New media enriches the style of diplomatic language, enhances innovation in discourse and displays a close-to-the-people diplomatic manner. It is a manifestation of people-oriented diplomacy”, the micro blog’s operations director, Gong Yufeng, said at the Media Salon conference organized by Renmin.com last month.

In addition to the online and offline interactive mode adopted by the Foreign Ministry, the report looked at other operational styles of ministry-level micro blogs. Among these were the micro-news releases of the Ministry of Commerce, and the up-to-date emergency information posts of the China Earthquake Administration.

The report said that ministry-level micro blogs should focus on four aspects of planning and management.

They should highlight the function of assisting politics and publishing professional and authoritative information to guide local government micro blogs. They should employ authoritative experts and reinforce the official position. They should take the nature of their followers into account and target specified professionals to reflect universal values. Finally, they should guide public opinion and use proper linguistic forms.

Sina Weibo has become an important tool for the government, providing more effective communication and an interactive platform for the government and the public, the report said.